El-Rufai And The Shoe On The Other Leg -By Ike Willie-Nwobu

Nigeria’s desperate campaign to save face from corruption sees many former public officers grace the offices of different crime fighting agencies as soon as they leave office. They often return grazed bruised but ultimately uninhibited from enjoying the proceeds of their excesses while in office. For Nasir el-Rufai, reckoning has come somewhat rapidly. As governor of Kaduna State between 2015 and 2023, he governed Kaduna with an iron fist. While rampaging bandits chewed up and spat out large chunks of the state, he preferred to chase shadows, conjuring up imaginary enemies. His bloody ru in with the Islamic movement of Nigeria predated his running battles with the good people of Southern Kaduna.

Under him, journalists were imprisoned while political opponents vanished, some without a trace. While el-Rufai drank the dregs of power as governor, it certainly appeared like those dregs were mixed with the elixir of eternity.

In Nigeria, only a thin veil separates power from powerlessness, and there isn’t a chasm between official power and state persecution, as many would want to believe. All it often takes to demystify an office and the demigods that occupy them is the effluxion of time and the tyrannical transience of power.

Now that el-Rufai is out of office and bled of power, with his days of glory receding far away from him, it appears there are scores to settle, scores that have scoured through his entire political history and are bent on scarring him.
His supporters have put on a show of support and defiance. They have been teargassed for their efforts. They have been called all sorts of names, and in all they have stood firm, demanding the release of their principal.

Yet, for days, their demands have fallen on deaf ears. Who would have thought that a day like this would come for one who bestrode Kaduna State and Nigeria as a whole like a colossus? While in office, his influence far exceeded the boundaries of Kaduna State.

Nigeria’s greatest problem is the failure of leadership. In all aspects, leadership has failed to propel a country to take its rightful place among the comity of nations, and every single former Nigerian leader at any level is to be blamed.

El-Rufa’s supporters have been quick to put his travails down to being in the opposition, but that will be too simplistic. Nigeria remains a democracy, and whoever has any question to answer should answer the questions strictly in accordance with the rule of law.

If the country must stamp out corruption and create solutions to its hydra headed problems, impunity must be expunged and accountability enthroned.

No country can run on the fumes of corruption or impunity, and Nigeria is no exception. As long as the country remains and hopes to remain, all hands must be on deck. It does not matter who is involved, the egos bruised or the tables upturned.

As for those whose policy while in power is to abuse their power and abuse others, perhaps they can learn that the shoe is certainly destined to go to the other leg someday.

Ike Willie-Nwobu
Ikewilly9@gmail.com